PRECARBONIFEROUS ROCKS OF CHARNWOOD FOREST. 779 



thickness, containing numerous large fragments. Among these, some 

 are the purple porphyritic rock, some are hardened ash, some other 

 materials. Beyond this a succession of low outcropping ridges run 

 roughly N.W. down to the Gracedieu lane, and at Hods Hole cross 

 some distance to the other side. The first of these, about 200 

 yards from the school-house, is also a great mass of agglomerate, 

 containing, at Hobs Hole, pieces a foot or more across. The others 

 are also ash, until, at a point about north of the S in the word Swan- 

 nymote on the map, the rock becomes a hard blue ash of finer 

 texture. Possibly the Sharpley rock is commencing here ; but the 

 lack of outcrops makes this uncertain. 



A patch of rock, however (south of the last letter of the above 

 word), consists of ash and breccia beds, resembling those breccias of 

 Ratchet Hill which lie at the summit of the Sharpley-Peldar series. 



On the north side of the Gracedieu lane, at the east end of 

 Gracedieu lawn, is an outcrop of slates and grits dipping at about 

 20° W.S.W. The slate is green, of not very fine grain ; but a more 

 compact rock shows a little further west. Yet a little further is a 

 small quarry, the beds in which seem to dip steeply in the opposite 

 direction. Across a valley, perhaps 100 yards further, is a mass 

 of slaty rocks resembling the banded slates which have hitherto 

 been wanting over so wide a stretch of country. The dip, however, 

 cannot be detected in this outcrop ; but a few yards off, in a small 

 patch of rock in a field north of a farm-house (on Warren Hill), a 

 bed of breccia overlies fine slates with a dip of about 10° or 15° to 

 W.S.W. This breccia consists of pieces 8 or 10 inches long of dark 

 purple slate (rather like the rocks of a narrow bed described on 

 High Towers) . Very little is exposed ; and the rock, so far as we 

 know, is not seen again. These dips are evidence of a roll in the 

 strata ; and near the fork of the lanes is an isolated mass of Sharpley 

 rock apparently dipping south. This is an additional indication of 

 disturbance. 



The beds south of the high road, west of Blackbrook toll-gate, are 

 a whitish quartzite with reddish stains, very like the quartzites of 

 Charley. They show distinct stripes indicative of bedding, and dip 

 (according to Jukes) W. 20° S. at an angle of 60°. 



17. We proceed now to the Whitwick breccia. It forms a ridge 

 on the right bank of the stream, at the boundary of the blue colour 

 of the Survey map, and is well shown in two quarries, one on each side 

 of the lane towards High Cadman. It consists of ash, containing 

 a great mass of fragments, themselves probably of an ashy material. 

 The dip, as indicated by certain main divisional planes, and by the 

 lie of the included fragments, seems to be very steep and to the 

 north. There are indications of an imperfect cleavage dipping about 

 70° to E. 20° N. The matrix is ashy ; it contains angular and sub- 

 angular fragments, variable in number, but often rather crowded, 

 showing much better on fresh broken faces than on the old weathered 

 surfaces, which is contrary to the usual habit of the Charnwood 

 breccias. Another rock closely resembles the fragments in a breccia 

 which will be described on JBardon Hill. The rocks of the great 



